CNN’s Laura Coates Breaks Down What RICO Means and How it Poses a Real Risk for Trump in New Georgia Indictment
CNN anchor and chief legal analyst Laura Coates spelled out what the RICO charges against former President Donald Trump could mean, and how the fact that so many of his attorneys were named as co-defendants could create trouble for him.
News broke Monday evening that a Georgia grand jury had indicted Trump and 18 others (including former New York City Mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark, former Trump staffer Mike Roman, and several lawyers who have represented Trump and his campaign, including Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, and John Eastman) for their alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election in that state.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged Trump and his co-defendants with a total of 41 counts in a 98-page indictment. The thirteen counts against Trump include violation of the Georgia RICO Act, filing false documents, false statements and writings, solicitation of violation of oath by public officer, conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer, conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree, conspiracy to commit false statements and writings, and conspiracy to commit filing false documents.
This Georgia indictment is Trump’s fourth this year, after the Manhattan one for the alleged hush money payment to Stormy Daniels and the two federal indictments for the documents seized by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago and alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Jake Tapper discussed the new indictment with the CNN panel Monday evening, and asked Coates for her take.
Coates remarked on how much “stunning information, the sheer volume” was contained in Willis’ comprehensive indictment, and highlighted how the inclusion of RICO charges had “broadened” the case.
“Translate that for the people at home,” said Tapper.
As Coates explained, RICO charges let the prosecutor cast a much broader net:
RICO is a fancy way of saying, look, a whole lot bunch of people got together, two or more really, they got together and coordinated a conspiracy, it’s a conspiracy on steroids as my friend Norm Eisen likes to say. It’s a way of participating in crimes, two or more in Georgia, as part of an overall plan. The overall connection, really, is that you all engage in criminal behavior. You need to not have direct connection with one another, as long as you are part of an overall conspiracy or actual enterprise.
Think about the common mafia case, right? Where you have got one person who is kind of a ringleader, a puppeteer as you will. Everyone attached to that string, involved in the entire theater, really is going to be an issue here.
The reason this is so important to hear is that normally a prosecutor only has the jurisdiction in their own specific area. They have to be nearsighted for justice to prevail. RICO allows you to be broader. Because whatever you have engaged in, in criminal behavior, that really had an impact in my jurisdiction — whether it happened out of state, whether it was in a different county, whether it was something in a different region of the country — it all can count towards my RICO case. So it does that.
Coates then said it was “really interesting” to see the list of attorneys named in the indictment.
“So many attorneys,” said Tapper.
“So many attorneys!” Coates agreed, and they named off Jenna Ellis, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, and Rudy Giuliani.
“It’s a motley crew of attorneys,” she continued, and pointed out how one key defense Trump and his allies had been touting was “defense of counsel,” that he was just “following the advice” of his attorneys, so wasn’t doing anything wrong.
“What this does now, with all of them being charged,” Coates explained, “is that it puts at odds Donald Trump with his counsel. Because at some point, a fact finding mission has to ensue where you have to prove that this was either advice of counsel or not.”
Watch above via CNN.
